designed the Player and Editor to give audio engineers
and Web developers an end-to-end Internet tool for deploying interactive MP3 audio/MIDI-based musical compositions. Beatnik's technology's proprietary, which means that potential users need to download and install a plug-in before they can experience your re-mixes and virtual instruments. However, Beatnik does offer a level of interactivity not possible with any other Web-based multimedia platform.
The tool set has functions for beginning to advanced Web developers and is steadily increasing its user base. Beatnik is an attractive method for posting audio online for those musicians with the chutzpa to roll up their sleeves and do a little Web work, as well as for aspiring code miners with a knack for looping beats and samples.
For novice users, one of Beatnik's most powerful features is its ability to "sonify" your website by attaching audio clips to navigation bars and things using pre-defined Java and JavaScript commands. These include the "groovoids," pre-recorded pieces in every genre created by Beatnik and available for your use as a developer. If
that interests you, go to the
Beatnik EZ Sonifiers.
A really eye-opening feature of Beatnik is its formidable ability to turn a sound file format -- WAV, SDII, .au, AIFF, and MID ("Type 1" MIDI files) -- into Beatnik's proprietary .rmf file format and then manipulate those chunks of audio. That's what we'll be working towards in this tutorial.
Beatnik can take components of finished songs and embed them as solo tracks, using a combination of MIDI and MP3 audio samples. This allows you to build an environment in which the user can create their own audio experience. You can produce whatever interface you like for this professional-quality audio, allowing advanced users to create complex digital music-making machines online. A working example is provided in this tutorial, and there are plenty of cool remixes at the Beatnik site. But first you'll need some tools.
